History Main / KosherNostra

* London, like New York, had its own Jewish population during the late nineteenth and early 20th century, which gave rise to local Jewish gangs. The Jewish influence is still echoed in a few Yiddish words that percolated into the criminal argot, such as "keep ''schtum''," meaning "keep quiet." One of the most famous Jewish {{London Gangster}}s of the period was Isaac "Ikey" Solomon, rumoured to have been the original inspiration Creator/CharlesDickens used for [[TheFagin Fagin]] in ''Literature/OliverTwist''.

* ''ComicBook/JewGangster'' is a graphic novel about Reuben "Ruby" Kaplan, a young Jewish man in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood during the UsefulNotes/GreatDepression. Desperate to make a better life for himself, he falls in with a local mobster and begins his journey into the criminal underworld.

* ''Film/TheGodfather'':
** The character of Moe Greene in Part I is based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugsy_Siegel Bugsy Siegel]].
** The character of Hyman Roth in Part II was based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Lansky Meyer Lansky]].

* In ''Film/BugsyMalone'', one of Fat Sam's lieutenants "Knuckles" is Jewish. PlayedForLaughs when he can't understand Sam speaking Italian and has to [[MediumAwareness read the subtitles]]].

* David Kleinfeld from ''Film/CarlitosWay'' is a jewish AmoralAttorney of the mob who willingly decides to go down a FromNobodyToNightmare route when he gets in trouble for stealing the payoff money of a Mafia boss.

* In ''Film/BugsyMalone'', one of Fat Sam's lieutenants "Knuckles" is Jewish. PlayedForLaughs when he can't understand Sam speaking Italian and has to [[MediumAwareness read the subtitles]]].

In fiction, the Kosher Nostra are rare, probably because Jewish organized crime tends to be rolled into other, larger organized criminal groups. In truth, the Jewish community was often too small to be the single dominant organized mob, and Jewish mobsters often made strategic alliances with a larger group, often ending up serving as advisers and technicians. From about [[TheRoaringTwenties Prohibition]] to some time in the 1960s or 1970s, the main allies were [[TheMafia the Italians]]. Nowadays, the Jewish mob is mostly focused in Israeli or [[TheMafiya Russian mobs]] (and as such, are more likely to qualify as RuthlessForeignGangsters). Still, they tend to pop up often enough in early-mid 20th century period pieces, particularly in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and pre-Castro UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}. There's also an overlap with LondonGangster, as during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century many poor immigrants in London were Jewish, and several real-world London gang leaders of the era, like Isaac "Ikey" Solomon and Jack "Spot" Comer came from that background.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[ClickHello -Click- Shalom]]]]

* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': Rock name drops the Kosher Nostra as one of the many gangs operating out of Roanapur alongside the Triads and Mafia. Though of all the major factions, they've never received focus in the story.

Transparent NoCelebritiesWereHarmed versions of the most famous RealLife examples, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, are particularly common (Lansky's friends joked that he behaved more "Italian" than most Italians). Historically, the Jewish Mob was a dominant force in the brief period between when White America started seeing Irishmen as "white" and the rise of the more numerous Italian Mob. During that period, they were involved in the regularization and "professionalization" of organized crime in the US, with the establishment of [[TheSyndicate The Commission]] (the Italian-American Mafia's coordination/dispute-resolution body) and MurderInc (organized, professional hitmen) being the brainchildren of Jewish mobsters (the Commission and Murder, Inc.'s parent organization, the National Crime Syndicate, were specifically Lansky's ideas).

The Mafia.... [[RecycledInSpace but Jewish!!]]

Jewish gangsters are usually distinguished from other, more typical mobsters by [[TheEvilGenius focusing their intellect and business acumen]] on [[PragmaticVillainy the pragmatic]] pursuit of [[GreedyJew profit]] over more personal concerns. Some works may also juxtapose contrasting stereotypes of Jewish and mobster behavior. These characters, if not outright BadassIsraeli, may [[JewishComplaining kvetch]], [[JewsLoveToArgue argue]] and [[SelfDeprecation self-deprecate]] like a typical nebbishy Jew, but also display an surprising HairTriggerTemper and AxCrazy capacity for violence.

* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': Rock name drops the Kosher Nostra as one of the many gangs operating out of Roanapur alongside the Triads and Mafia. Though of all the major factions they've never received focus in the story.

* In the horror comic ''Martin Hel'', also by Robin Wood, the protagonist has as a friend a french mafia boss who is Jewish, and dresses as a mix of a Hasidic Jew and a rabbi.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Dale and Stacey Yorkes, the token Jewish couple in The Pride, run a number of side-hustles throughout history, using time travel to go back and forth through time to make collections from different eras. In the early 1900's, they ran a gang called the Deviant Ones in New York City.

* In ''Film/{{Snatch}}'', the characters make several references to the involvement of Jews in the diamond trade. There are several crooked Jewish gangsters mixed up in it: Frankie Four Fingers, TheGamblingAddict and the man responsible for stealing a diamond and kick-starting the plot: Avi, his foul-mouthed and incompetent boss: Rosebud, Avi's DumbMuscle: and Doug the Head, a pawnbroker of stolen jewelry, though in Doug's case, he isn't actually Jewish, but acts like it because because Jews are the dominant force in the gemstone trade.

* In ''Literature/AConspiracyOfPaper'', one of the characters is Abraham Mendes, a historical figure, who in reality, as in the novels, is the chief lieutenant of the gangster Jonathan Wild. The novels have a definite {{hardboiled detective}} feel (despite the 18th century setting), and likewise, Mendes fits a lot of the 20th century (Jewish) gangster stereotypes. He's a violent thug in professional life, but when not engaged in crime, is [[AffablyEvil a pleasant man]] who [[ChurchgoingVillain goes to synagogue regularly]]. He also fits the erratic temper part. The second novel shows him to be an animal lover, and he brutally attacks someone who had harmed a dog.

* The kingpin of 50's Los Angeles, Mickey Cohen, plays a prominent role in ''Literature/LAConfidential''.

* Jewish gangsters feature prominently in ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire''. Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Seigel and Waxy Gordon are all characters of varying importance. Manny Horvitz is a [[OriginalCharacter (fictional)]] kosher butcher who is vying with Gordon over control of Philadelphia. One of few works of fiction to address Rothstein's poker habit, which eventually put him in debt [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter to a better gambler]], who had him murdered in 1928.

* Also from HBO, ''[[Series.{{Rome}} Rome]]'' has Timon[=/=]Tevye, a bodyguard working for gentile Romans in an OlderThanFeudalism example.

-->''1900: Kansas City, Missouri. In the beginning were the Hebrews, and they ran the underworld...''

* ''Videogame/LANoire'' has a couple of these, as you might guess from the page quote. The first is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Cohen Mickey Cohen]], based on the real-life gangster who was something of celebrity in L.A. during the 40's and 50's. The second is Lenny Finklestein, a drug-dealer [[spoiler: whom you wind up killing while investigating morphine-trafficking]].

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' has the Jewish Mob responsible for the diamond deal that serves as the focus of a major subplot. The boss and his right hand man (Isaac Roth and Mori Green respectively) are [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to the famous ''Godfather'' characters.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purple_Gang The Purple Gang]] were probably the most well-known example from the Roaring Twenties. They controlled bootlegging and union extortion in {{UsefulNotes/Detroit}}, and were [[TheDreaded so feared]] that even UsefulNotes/AlCapone didn't dare mess with them, instead forming a partnership to distribute the Canadian liquor they imported into Chicago, which just goes to show that [[{{Memes/Advertising}} you don't have to be Jewish]] [[IncrediblyLamePun to love real Jewish rye]]. But by 1931, the Purple Gang's fortunes dwindled as [[JewsLoveToArgue years of infighting]] (with three of their top members killed off for challenging the leadership) and a brief war with UsefulNotes/TheMafia decimated them. Also, police found it easier to trace crimes to the gang because its members attracted too much heat. The gang continued in a weakened capacity for a few years before the Italians took over the Detroit underworld.

* ''Film/{{Bugsy}}'' about... well, Bugsy Siegel. Lansky is in this one too; understandable, given they were lifelong friends. Until Lansky [[OnlyICanKillHim ordered a hit on him.]]

* ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica'': Max, Noodles, Patsy, Cockeye, Bugsy are Jewish, in full accordance with ''The Hoods'', the novel that served as a source for adaptation. In particular, the character of Maximilian "Max" Bercovicz was inspired by Lansky, and David "Noodles" Aaronson was at least partially based on the author of the novel himself - Harry Grey, born Herschel Goldberg in Odessa (now Ukraine; according to the novel, Noodles' family is from Odessa as well), who used to work for Frank Costello. However, Bugsy is entirely absent from the novel and has little in common with Bugsy Siegel apart from both being Jewish American gangsters known by the nickname of, well, Bugsy.

* ''Literature/TheYiddishPolicemensUnion'' takes place in an alternate history where Jews settled in an Alaskan city after Israel lost in the Independence War. There's plenty of crime and intrigue in the almost exclusively Jewish metropolis. The most notable criminal organization is an ultra-Orthodox religious sect called the Verboven. The sect's head rabbi is TheDon.
* In ''Literature/AConspiracyOfPaper'', one of the characters is Abraham Mendes, a historical figure, who in reality, as in the novels, is the chief lieutenant of the gangster Jonathan Wild. The novels have a definite hardboiled detective feel (despite the 18th century setting), and likewise, Mendes fits a lot of the 20th century (Jewish) gangster stereotypes. He's a violent thug in professional life, but when not engaged in crime, is a pleasant man who goes to synagogue regularly. He also fits the erratic temper part. The second novel shows him to be an animal lover, and he brutally attacks someone who had harmed a dog.